One of the most exciting aspects of the transition to clean energy is that it isn’t just a swap of technologies. It’s an enabler of energy democracy. Fossil fuels have always needed big scale infrastructure, such as mines and power stations and the transport connections between them. This kind of scale needs big funders, which has given governments and corporations an out-sized role in the energy market. Renewable energy can be much more local and responsive, which opens the door to a wider set of operators and business models. Through community energy and local ownership, more of us can have a stake in the energy that we depend on.
That isn’t inevitable. There are examples around the world of clean energy projects that have displaced people from their land, or prioritised exports over local needs. But at its best, it’s entirely possible to rebalance political and economic power through renewable energy.
There’s a nice example of this in Australia at the moment, in the form of the Western Green Energy Hub. It’s a proposal for a renewable energy hub that will produce clean electricity for Australia, and green hydrogen and ammonia for export. The ambition is pretty vast. With a capacity of 70GW of power, it could theoretically power the whole country with its 25 million solar panels and 3,000 wind turbines.
This is admittedly a mega-project – it will be one of the biggest energy infrastructure projects in the world – but where it gets most interesting is the way that it keeps local ownership and community at its heart. The hub will be located on the traditional lands of the Mirning tribe, an indigenous people group that only secured their land rights in 2017. Through a company called Mirning Green Energy, the community will have a permanent seat on the board and a share of the profits. A land use agreement will ensure buffer zones around traditional paths and sacred places. As they have exclusive Native Rights to the land, all development will need their consent, and after 50 years, the Mirning will have the right to take majority ownership of the project.
If all goes according to plan, the hub will lay the groundwork for new green industry in the region. Australia would be able to shift from coal exports towards clean shipping fuels, and indigenous people would be among the main beneficiaries. It shows how community energy can be attempted at the international scale as well as the local, and so it’s a project to keep an eye on.
Though it’s the biggest, the Western Green Energy Hub not unique in Australia. First Nations Clean Energy is a network that is supporting indigenous communities in the energy transition, with a number of solar and wind projects completed or in development. It’s an important part of a just transition, an example of intersectional climate action, and a demonstration of how the change in energy system can challenge entrenched patterns of inequality and exclusion.
The Earthbound Report 